"The Impossible" -- about one family's journey in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami -- answers that question with a thunderously sad yet affirming "yes."

Directed by Spanish filmmaker Juan Antonio Bayona and written by Sergio G. Sanchez, the movie is based on the harrowing story of the Alvarez Belons, a Spanish family that was vacationing in Thailand when the tsunami hit.

Naomi Watts gives one of her finest, most physically commanding turns as Maria Bennett, who along with husband Henry and boys Lucas, Simon and Thomas head to Thailand for a Christmas vacation.

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Ewan McGregor is Henry, a businessman. Maria is a doctor but now stays home with her boys. "You got promoted," says a smiling resort attendant with such sweetness when they arrive at Phuket's Orchid resort.

Tom Holland, a theater performer, is exceptional in his big-screen debut as oldest son Lucas. The actor alternates between a boy's headstrong will and touching vulnerability. In a roiling river of deadly debris, Lucas and Maria manage to find and cling to each other.

There are no weak performances. Oaklee Pendergast and Samuel Joslin are natural as Simon and Thomas. McGregor embraces his moments of ache and shine. A phone call to his father is heart-breaking, not simply because he crumbles but because another survivor just as bereft has loaned him the precious cellphone.

Still, it is Maria and Lucas' bond that becomes the core of "The Impossible." From the moment Lucas turns away from his mother's exposed breast, the movie delves into the uncharted territory of a mother and son trying to take care of each other. She's wise but wounded. He puts on a brave front but is a terrified kid whose ethics would normally have years to gel.

Lucas initially turns heartless when they hear the mewing of a toddler. Maria seizes it as an opportunity to build empathy.

When they arrive at a hospital teeming with the wounded and the shell-shocked in search of loved ones, she insists he do something to help. The service he offers is as beautiful as it is invaluable.

Rated PG-13, "The Impossible" is often difficult to watch, and just as hard to turn away from. Parents prove utterly vulnerable. Children are endangered or orphaned.

Not only is the tidal wave convincingly loud, fast, furious, the aftermath is dank and desolate. Maria's wounds caused my stomach to somersault a couple of times.

Filmmakers Bayona and Sanchez made 2007's surprisingly compassionate ghost story "The Orphanage." Along with the special-effects teams, they use some of the tricks of the horror genre: An eerily calm ocean seems cruel as it beckons in the days before Dec. 26. Sound designer Oriol Tarrag uses low, basso rumblings from the start to unnerve.

But the first real sign of impending disaster comes when an electric, poolside blender inexplicably stops. A wind whips up. Birds take noisy flight. The palm trees they flee seem to be mowed down. Then the muddy, loud wall of water comes crashing down upon all.

Cinematographer Oscar Fauro makes good use of aerial shots to convey the vastness of the devastation, the isolation of Maria and Lucas as well as their status as survivors in a sea of survivors.

The one qualm "The Impossible" poses is the sense that the story of such sweeping loss shouldn't be told via one family. While the filmmakers are sensitive to the quandary, they never fully dispense with that discomfort. What might director Alejandro González Iñárritu, the impresario of multi-character narrative, have made out of the disaster?

Still. Bayona and Sanchez address the issue in their own gentle ways. After Maria and Lucas are rescued by two villagers, Maria is tended to by a number of women. She whispers "thank you" again and again, to her caretakers, to no one, to everyone.

It's a touching articulation of bottomless gratitude. It also feels like the filmmakers way of acknowledging the real-life victims and heroes. We can't learn all the names. But the movie is infused with their suffering, courage and compassion.